Follow the light!

The unthinkable happened two and a half years ago. The families of science thought they would come up with a cure to the world’s sunlight problem. Instead they made a curse!

Hi I’m Ronny Burch. I have been hiding out in the rotations for a year and a half now. The rotations are the border camps where lost souls come when they have no specific path. It is full of kids my age and Elders. The sneakers protect the rotations! Sneakers are the navy seals of the new world as we now know it. The rotations is where i met Smith. He is what we would call back home a “typical”. He only cared about food, football, and fishing. Other than that he was a cock strong air head. He thinks his family is in one of the close cities and I tell him the story over and over about my mother, Carol separating from me last year to save me. She went ahead to the next city to set up a safe camp for me. She told me I would know when the time is right. Wait for the red light in the sky the red light would come form a Heart shaped locket my mom got from a friend. My mother was a judo champion and one of the best marksman in the state. She grew up with six brothers, “one tough cookie” everyone in her hometown would say. We tried leaving the rotations once to make it to the city with the smoke signal hovering over it, but it did not go so well. We made it about four miles down the path and ran into durbies. The durbies are the roamers of the new world. They look human so they blend in but deep inside they cold hearted walking dead. They don’t have the bite to transform you so they just roam around and play mischievous games on anyone they catch. Smith Came up with another plan after studying a map that is posted on the outside of the sneakers main tent. It should take us around up and over he said. I was confused and did not really want to hear a plan but Smith is my friend so I sacrificed my ears. If the map is correct we can take the outside path along the lake. It might take us longer but the durbies do not need water so they will not be on that path. I obliged and said lets pack and get some rest we will leave in two days. The morning of ,we noticed two others all packed and saying a prayer about to head out to the paths as well. I wonder which path they were going to take, I asked tapping Smith on his shoulder who cares if they get in our way they will be durbie bait. We grabbed our bags and headed to the exit gates. The gates opened and a voice came over the intercom “Exit at your own risk”!The confident smile on smith’s face took away all the butterflies I had in stomach. “On the road again I can’t wait to get on the road again” Smith sang while jumping in the air and clicking both of his heels together. We are going to cover a third of the path today and we can set up for food and rest before dark fall. Durbies can not see silver in the dark so we have to sleep under our reflective ponchos. The first two miles we both took a swig of water out of our canteens and smith stared out in the far. Him being silent was different but I could tell his mind was racing. He was focused, excited, and determined. Smith took a deep breath and said this time we will be successful. Ronny I can feel it I can’t wait for you to meet my big brother Cole. He is the coolest guy in the world. I can not wait to meet him. We got to the lake and the water looked shallow can you swim? Smith asked well it is fine time to ask me that we both looked at each other and laughed then jumped in. The water was warm and very polluted. We kept our mouths closed. When we made it to the other side of the lake I seen something gold sticking out of the ground. I reached for it and pulled it up it was a knife. It had gold handle. “Hey my brother has a knife with a gold handle on it” Smith said. “He had his initials engraved in it”. It was really rusted so if it was his knife we would not know. Here take it just in case it is your brother’s knife. Smith grabbed the knife and put it in his bag. The second lake had clear water so after we swam across we topped off our canteens and washed our faces. “Let’s go another mile then climb that big rock that’s where we can sleep. When we arrived to the top of the big rock we said our prayers covered up and fell asleep. Wake up Ronny! The light is in the sky! Smith was so excited,

“It is her! it is her!” Smith said. “Finally i will get to meet her! You said she was going to open it when the time was right and the time is right Ronny! Wake up now!”Smith screamed and kicked me with his worn out boot. Smith boots smelled like fish because we swam across two lakes. I was not sure if i was dreaming so I crossed my fingers and cracked one eye open. And there it as was the small beam of light. The red light was shining through the gas and smog filled sky. I could not believe it. It almost felt like this day would never come. I knew not to doubt mom she is a warrior, naturally I got up quickly. Gathered only what was absolutely needed and encouraged Smith to keep up. I could not tell how far we were from the light but I was heading towards it and nothing was gonna stop me not even Smith. I filled our canteens with water and we were on our way. Smith started to sing “We’re off to see the wizard… the wonderful wizard of Oz” I was excited, anxious and every emotion known to me ran through my mind and body. I miss mom so much. I couldn’t wait for her to wrap her arms around me and kiss my forehead. We arrived at what looked like halfway to the light only to spot three durbies chasing the two guys that left the rotations with us hey I told you they would be bait smith said with a evil grin on his face. We have to help them I told smith! Smith grabbed a handful of rocks and looked at me if I miss with these rocks we will call it fate.